Group home work tough, sometimes rewarding

A former worker in a Beverly group home explains what it's like to work in a Beverly home.

Bobby Gates

Work at a group home often involves long hours, stressful situations and less-than-stellar pay.

Take, for example, Jason Verhoosky, who worked for four years at the former Homeward Bound group home on Highland Avenue.

Verhoosky, 27, now the education director at the North Shore Music Theater, began work at Homeward Bound as a part-time “relief staff member” in 2001 while still a student at Montserrat College of Art and worked his way up to assistant program director — second in charge — before he left in 2005.

The job ranged from the satisfaction of seeing a boy successfully return to his home to the disappointment of seeing a former resident show up in the arrest log in the newspaper.

All of the residents were referred to the home by the state Department of Social Services — most involuntarily. Many of them were dealing with behavior issues, truancy or substance abuse, either by them or somebody in their family.

“That state had become part of their lives, either voluntarily or involuntary,” Verhoosky said.

Most of the residents were in the home for between 30 and 45 days. Almost all of them attended school, either in their home district, in Beverly, or were working towards a GED. Most of the residents were from the North Shore — three of the beds were reserved through a contract with DSS’ Gloucester office and another three beds were reserved through its Lynn office.

The home served mostly as a “bridge house,” meaning that it was often the first stop for a boy after leaving a home or the last stop before heading back home.

In all cases, the goal was to reunite the boy with his family, or if that weren’t possible, to settle him with another family member or with a foster family.

The home had nine beds and, as a primary counselor, or “floor staff,” Verhoosky was responsible for three of the residents. He also worked as part of a team with all of the staff. For the three residents, he had “to look after,” he set goals for those residents and tracked their progress, staying in contact with social workers and psychologists working with them.

A majority of the group home’s residents — Verhoosky estimated about 60 percent — were disappointed to be there and didn’t understand why there were there but quickly were willing to work with the staff.

About 10 to 15 percent of the residents were willingly there and were “easy going,” Verhoosky said. A similar percentage was at the other end of the spectrum and was “all and all not willing to be there.”

Verhoosky first became interested in the job from somebody else whom he knew who worked at the group home. He began with a “shadow shift” alongside a staff member.

“From there they saw potential in me and it was something I enjoyed doing,” he said.

The high points of the work included seeing a former resident return to the home to catch up with staff, telling them they had a job or were still in school. That happened for him about six times, he said.

“It was fairly rare, unfortunately,” he said.

Verhoosky was most bothered when he would see parents and family members of residents who were not involved in the resident’s lives and didn’t show up for visits.

“The thing that was the hardest to swallow was the see families that did not care,” he said.

Eventually, Verhoosky decided to seek another job in August 2005 for much the same reasons that staff turnover at groups homes can be high — stress, long and often irregular hours and “livable but not very high” pay.

“It’s a very underappreciated job,” he said, noting that coworkers won’t give you much sympathy because they’re doing the same work and most other people don’t understand what the job entails.

The group home’s director often looked for staff members who were showing signs of burnout, he said, so that they could get some assistance.

Verhoosky averaged about 60 hours a week at work, he estimated, even though workers typically work four 10-hour shifts per week. In his four years there, he said he took just three vacations — one was his honeymoon and another was a trip paid for by his in-laws after he became engaged.

“I was getting burned out,” Verhoosky said, noting the job helped him build skills to help him in future jobs and he knew working at a group home wasn’t a lifetime career choice.

“There were some days when you went to work and I would walk in the door and be involved in somebody’s crisis,” he said, describing how that can wear on somebody.